New Short Talks From the Hill: Taking the Pulse of the State with Janine Parry

The latest edition of Short Talks From the Hill, a podcast from the University of Arkansas, features Janine Parry, professor of political science. Parry discusses the trends and shifts in public opinion she's observed over two decades as director of the Arkansas Poll.

Since 1999, the poll has tracked opinion on policy issues such as abortion and gun control, as well as political affiliation.

Professor Janine Parry, director of the Arkansas Poll.

"The most significant change … is the one that we've seen in partisan identification," she explains. "In 2010, completely in sync with the change in our election outcomes after more than a century of patterns, we saw [respondents who identified as independent] take a hard right turn. … Suddenly about half of the sample said 'Well, I'm leaning Republican.'"

Parry also discusses the challenges and benefits of collecting high-quality data with polls, and gives advice on how to tell if any poll is a reliable source of information. The 20th annual Arkansas Poll results will be released next month.

Short Talks From the Hill highlights research and scholarly work at the University of Arkansas. Each segment features a university researcher discussing his or her work. For more information and additional podcasts, click on the Multimedia link at researchfrontiers.uark.edu.